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As you may have experienced, curriculum mapping can feel like you are trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. In this blog , we shared five important tips for mapping instructional materials to your district curriculum. Since that blog was published, we have helped many more districts with various curriculum alignment tasks. In this two-part blog series, we share a few more tips from our experience. (1)  Establish a common definition of alignment . When we began Learning List, we surveyed educators and publishers to find out how they defined a lignment . Not surprising, publishers generally defined the term more liberally than educators did, but there were many shades of grey in the definitions provided by educators, too. At Learning List, we consider a citation (i.e., a lesson, activity, quiz) to be aligned to a standard if the citation addresses the content of the standard, the cognitive rigor of the standard, and the context of the standard. It is a good idea to begin a curriculum alignment session by discussing what alignment means and what it looks like in your district. (2) Identify the standards that must be taught in each curriculum unit.  Most district curricula are recursive, meaning that the same standards are repeated across several curriculum units. Before you begin looking for citations in the material, it is helpful to know which standards must be taught in each curriculum unit. It is equally important to identify how many times each standard is repeated across all of the district curriculum units. (3)  Become familiar with the material . Before jumping into the alignment process, take time to become familiar with the material and the publisher’s correlation. Peruse the material to determine the topics covered, the progression of units/chapters, the pattern and structure of lessons, as well as the types and location of the material’s supplemental resources. Is the correlation a document or an online search function? How is it organized, and how many citations (lessons, activities, quizzes) are listed for each standard? Understanding the product’s correlation, design, and structure will make it easier to find citations in the material to check for alignment.  (4) Identify where each standard is listed in the district curriculum (scope and sequence) and addressed in material . In the prior blog, we discussed how to map citations in the material to the district curriculum: select a standard; identify citations in the material that achieve mastery of that standard; map those citation(s) to the district curriculum unit where mastery of the standard is required; then, use the other citations in the material (that introduce and scaffold instruction of that standard) to backfill the other district curriculum units that include that standard. A word of caution : since publishers and educators often have very different definitions of alignment , it is critical that you verify the alignment of the citations before you list them in the district curriculum. (5) Match the pacing and context of the citations in the material to the pacing and context of the district curriculum units . As you determine where to map each aligned citation, it is important to match the pacing of the material to the pacing of the district’s scope and sequence. For example, if a standard occurs in units 2, 3, 4, and 5 of the district’s scope and sequence, look for citations that align to that standard in the  early  units of the material. Citations that occur in the later units of the material (e.g., 6, 7, 8) may assume pre-learning that will not yet have occurred early in the school year when units 2,3, and 4 of your district curriculum will be taught. Make sure that you are also considering the context of the district curriculum unit.  For example, if a standard stating “compose literary texts such as personal narratives, fiction, and poetry using genre characteristics and craft,” is listed in several units of the district curriculum, a citation addressing composing poetry would be aligned to that standard in the curriculum unit addressing  poetr y. However, that same lesson would  not  be aligned to the same standard in the curriculum unit addressing  personal narrative .  Easier said than done, right? Tune in again next week for more “helpful” hints about mapping resources to your district curriculum.

This is the second of two blog posts about mapping instructional materials to a district curriculum. The first blog discussed developing a common definition of alignment, becoming familiar with your materials, and important considerations when identifying citations (lessons, activities, quizzes) in your materials to map to the district curriculum. This blog contains five more tips. (6)  Citations should specifically identify the aligned content . Pages (physical or online) in a material often have several subsections. To be most useful to busy teachers, the citations listed in the district curriculum should pinpoint the portion of the page where the standard is aligned. While teachers will likely use other parts of the page or surrounding pages too, it important for them to know precisely where alignment exists so that they do not inadvertently skip the aligned portion of the page. (7)   Look for additional citations in the material’s supplemental components/resources.  When doing curriculum alignment, first verify the alignment of citations listed in the teacher’s guide, because those are designed to align to standards fully. However, if a standard is repeated, and you do not have a sufficient number of aligned teacher guide citations, check the alignment of the material’s supplemental resources, such as graphic organizers, anchor charts, rubrics, and leveled texts. In our experience, supplemental resources are likely to be only  partially  aligned to the standards, but they may provide valuable instruction and/or practice. If you cite  partially  aligned citations in your curriculum documents, be sure to provide guidance about what teachers need to do to fill in the resource’s gaps. (8)   Consult external resources when struggling with an alignment decision.  Our reviewers and Directors are highly experienced educators who are very familiar with the standards. On occasion, however, reviewers disagree about whether a citation is aligned to a standard  within the context of the particular curriculum unit . In those instances, we consult external resources, such district or state vertical alignment documents, released assessment items, and other explanatory resources. Seeing a different explanation of the standard often helps reviewers reach consensus about the citation’s alignment to the standard within the context of the curriculum unit. (9)  Avoid reusing text-dependent citations.  This tip is particularly relevant when mapping English Language Arts and Reading materials but may also have cross-curricular applicability. Identify whether the citation you are reviewing requires students to read or refer to a particular text. If so, the citation is text-dependent and should only be cited in a  single  curriculum unit, otherwise, students will have to re-read the same text multiple times throughout the year. While text-dependent citations should only be mapped to a one curriculum unit, non-text-dependent citations (e.g, “paraphrase the text” or writing  process  exercises) can be cited in multiple curriculum units, because teachers can use these types of citations with a different text each time. (10) Expect Gaps . No matter how diligent you are about looking for citations that align to each of the standards in your district curriculum, you should expect gaps. The material may have been written to align to the state’s standards, but it was not written to align to your district curriculum. The curriculum may repeat certain standards more often than the material envisioned. The curriculum may emphasize standards for which there is insufficient content in the material. The goal of the curriculum alignment exercise should not be to try to  force  the material to cover all of the standards in the curriculum, but rather to identify where gaps exist in the material when examined through the lens of the district curriculum. Those gaps do not mean the material is weak; rather, they just identify where additional resources must be used to supplement the core material in order to fulfill the mandates of the district curriculum. We hope that these pointers prove useful during summer curriculum writing. While easy to explain, this work is difficult and time consuming. If you need more support, consider our online professional learning courses that help cultivate the skills needed for successful curriculum writing: What Alignment Means, Why It Matters, and How to Do It , and Mapping Materials to the District Curriculum . We also offer curriculum alignment services tailored to meet districts’ unique needs. Contact us for more information.

Have you ever purchased K-12 textbooks or online instructional materials that are not well-aligned to the standards? Where are those materials today – on a bookshelf, in a closet, in the district’s warehouse? Selecting new instructional materials or even deciding which existing materials to use in a lesson can be a daunting task. Learning List was founded 10 years ago to help teachers, instructional coaches, principals, and district curriculum leaders choose high-quality materials and use them most effectively to help students learn. Once a district or campus subscribes to Learning List, an unlimited number of district or campus staff may have access to the site. This is because Learning List’s reviews and online tools not only inform instructional materials selection decisions, they help educators use their materials to develop standards-aligned lessons, targeted remediation, and personalized tutoring, too. Teachers use our detailed alignment reports and alignment comparison tool to identify lessons, activities, and quizzes in their instructional materials that have been independently verified by Learning List's subject matter experts to be aligned to the standards PLCs use our alignment comparison tool to quickly identify which of their existing materials are aligned to the standards that are included in the unit they are planning Instructional coaches use our alignment reports to coach teachers and write curriculum Principals use our reviews and product comparison tools to vet the alignment and quality of materials their teachers have requested   District curriculum staff use our audit tools to identify gaps in their current materials and find new materials, including open educational resources, to fill those gaps. If you would like to see our full reviews and the tools that make them actionable, contact us to schedule a brief online call. That small investment of time could save your staff and colleagues hours of work and empower them to use the district’s instructional materials strategically to help all students succeed.

Are you teaching a new grade level or subject this year? If so, you likely do not feel like you have had enough time to plan.  Three years into my teaching career I moved between campuses and inherited a book cart full of textbooks and supplemental materials for my new assignment. I had no idea whether the materials were current or well-aligned to the current standards for the course! To make things more difficult, I was a singleton teacher and had no one to ask.  It took me a long time to wade through what I had, and I am quite sure that I was missing components of the material that came with the original purchase. If you are in a similar position, consider these suggestions to help you plan instruction efficiently with materials you have inherited. 1. Get to know the resources you have available to you Identify which of the district’s materials are comprehensive/core and which are supplemental. You will have more success if you use your materials for their intended purpose. As a new teacher for the course, you would likely want to primarily use your comprehensive/core material .  Comprehensive/core materials include broad, deep discussions of content, remediation and enrichment activities, formative and summative assessments, supports for students, and teacher resources. While you may be tempted to use an engaging or familiar supplemental resource  you have access to as the primary material, keep in mind that supplemental materials are not designed to be the sole instructional resource for a course. Rather, these materials intend to complement, enrich, or extend the content of comprehensive resources. For that reason, supplemental products will vary significantly in terms of their alignment to standards. Most supplemental materials are not aligned to 100% of the standards for the course/subject. Even if a material is 100% aligned , it is likely to be thinly aligned, meaning there will not be many aligned citations for each standard. This is because supplemental materials generally are designed for a specific purpose, such as to provide additional practice on a subset of standards that students typically struggle with, or to prepare students to master the standards that are likely to be assessed on the state’s assessment. 2. Identify the other instructional resources that are included with(in) those materials Take some time before school starts to browse through the teacher and student editions of your available materials to identify additional components of the material. In some materials, the additional components, such as lesson plans, leveled readers, simulations, games, and tutorial videos, are easy to see. In others, it may take some digging to figure out how to access those resources. You may also strike instructional gold in the publishers’ “Help” sections.  Additionally, your predecessor may have left you a list of the online resources and consumables he/she used. If not, check with other members of your team to see which resources they use. 3. Identify which of your materials are current Sometimes teachers keep print materials purchased prior to the implementation of the current standards. Such materials could be used to provide additional practice on some standards, but they will certainly not address all of the current standards. Here are two easy ways to determine whether a material left for you preceded your current standards: Compare the material’s publication date to the date the new standards were implemented. If provided, use the publisher’s correlation document to identify which standards are addressed in the instructional material. 4. Identify citations (e.g., lessons, activities, quizzes) that are aligned to the standards you will be teaching When planning your instruction, check that the citation(s) you plan to use is/are aligned to the content, context, and cognitive demand of the standards you will be teaching. Students cannot learn what they are not taught. In order to ensure that your students learn the knowledge and skills your state standards require, your materials must be aligned to those standards. Check to see whether the district has already mapped its resources to the individual units of the district curriculum.  If so, this should save you hours of planning time, as the district curriculum will identify the materials, and hopefully, even specific lessons, activities, and quizzes within each material that is/are aligned to each of the standards in each unit of instruction. Thinking back to my third year of teaching, I would have saved so much planning time if I had known how to check my materials and done so before the school year started. I didn’t.  I hope these suggestions help you prepare efficiently for the new school year so that your students have the best opportunity for success. Have questions? Contact us . We are happy to assist with information about any material we have reviewed.

The mass resignation of teachers and resulting nationwide teacher shortages highlight the importance of having high-quality instructional materials. Prior to the pandemic, Arizona, Nevada, Oklahoma, and Washington were among the states experiencing severe shortages of fully-prepared, credentialed teachers. During the 2020-21 school year, nearly 20 percent of California’s K-12 classrooms were taught by underprepared teachers. And, according to the National Center for Education Statistics , as of June 2022, 62 percent of public schools were concerned about filling staff vacancies and expected to have three teacher vacancies (on average) for the 2022-23 school year. Teacher shortages often lead to merged classrooms and teacher reassignments. Teachers who are newly assigned to teach a grade level and course may lack expertise in the subject area, in the standards, and sometimes even in pedagogy. For such teachers, their instructional materials become a critical safety net for themselves and for their students. However, if the materials are not high quality, if they are not aligned to state standards, or if they are not easy to use, they may be a sieve rather than a safety net, for teachers and students, alike. Are your instructional materials a sieve or a safety net? Learning List’s reviews and comparison tools make it easy to find out if the materials you are currently using or may be considering buying will teach your students what they need to know to be successful.   Our detailed alignment reports show specifically where (e.g., specific page numbers, lesson titles) the material is aligned to each standard and identify the standards to which the material is not aligned. If a material is not aligned to 100% of the state’s standards for a grade level or course, our Fill-in-the-Gap™ tool recommends additional core or supplemental materials that align to the remaining standards. Our Compare Alignment tool allows you to do a standard-by-standard alignment comparison of multiple materials, making it easy to select a new, standards-aligned instructional material or to select from your existing materials when planning instruction or engaging in curriculum writing or instructional alignment.  Beyond assessing the alignment of materials, our evidence-based editorial reviews asses each product’s instructional quality to make it easy for educators to determine which materials will meet their needs and support their students. These reviews evaluate the material’s rigor, vertical alignment, student engagement, supports for special student populations, and resources for teachers, as well as the product’s design and ease-of-use. For example, our reviews highlight which products are text heavy, requiring students to read extensively; which materials provide text features and videos to support student learning of key concepts; and which resources chunk learning in manageable segments with regular checks for understanding and consistently embedded activities.  Finally, our technology reviews test the material’s compatibility with the devices and systems campuses and districts use. Our tech reviews help district and campus leaders support teachers’ use of their materials and avoid making expensive mistakes. With so many teachers in new positions for the new school year, it is critical for district and campus leaders to ensure that their materials are standards-aligned and high-quality. Learning List’s reviews and comparison tools make it easy to assess whether a material will support or undermine your teachers’ and students’ success.  Research Report: A Coming Crisis in Teaching? Teacher Supply, Demand and Shortages in the U.S. , Learning Policy Institute, September 2016 “ Nearly 1 out of 5 classes in California taught by underprepared teachers ,” EdSource, June 30, 2022

Over the years, numerous subscribing districts have contacted us for help finding instructional materials to consider for a new course they were planning to offer. We would contact other districts that subscribe to our service and compile a materials list for the relevant course. One day, a grateful curriculum director explained that the list we gave her had saved her staff weeks of work. That sparked an idea! We could leverage our relationships with districts and publishers alike to create a robust materials list for the range of subjects and courses schools offer. We spent the next several weeks talking to district curriculum leaders about this idea and learned that curriculum staff and teachers spend an inordinate amount of time searching for new materials to review. So, we got to work. We created  The Learning List  to help teachers spend more time teaching and curriculum teams spend more time supporting and coaching teachers.  The Learning List  is a  free, public  directory of more than 10,000 K-12 instructional materials (and counting!) for the courses districts offer. We aggregated titles from state and district adoption lists, our database of reviewed materials, and publishers' catalogs. The titles are organized by subject, course, and grade band. Within each grade band, the materials we have reviewed are listed first; the remaining materials are listed in alphabetical order. The Learning List  is an organic, communal resource that we will update regularly. If your district is using or your company is selling materials that are not yet listed,  submit the titles  and we will add them to the list. If we have reviewed a material you are interested in, contact us to learn about how to access our reviews. If we have not yet reviewed the material you are interest in, contact us to learn more about having the material reviewed. We can complete our reviews within five weeks of receiving access to the material.

According to the 2021 Survey Results of the RAND Corporation’s American Instructional Resources Surveys , over 90% of the teachers surveyed consider standards alignment an important characteristic in their district-provided instructional materials (question 34). Yet, only between 36-41% of the surveyed teachers (depending on the content area) perceive that their district-purchased materials help their students master their state's math, English language arts, or science standards. Are materials as poorly aligned as teachers perceive? Learning List has reviewed the alignment of over 3,300 widely used PreK-12 instructional materials. Our subject matter experts review the citations (e.g., lessons, activities, assessments) listed in the publisher's correlation for alignment to the content , context and cognitive rigor of each standard. We find that core materials are generally aligned to most (though not all) of the standards; the alignment of supplemental materials is much more variable. So, why do teachers perceive that their core materials are not aligned? Here are three reasons: (1) Publishers' definition of "alignment": A publisher's definition of "alignment" may not match the district or campus definition.  Some publishers include citations in their correlation when any part of a standard is addressed. Teachers quickly see that the material is not aligned in most of the places the publishers cite. (2) Teachers' expectations: Many standards have multiple component parts. Some materials address the components of complex standards separately in different locations across the material. When citations listed in the publisher's correlation address only a portion of the standard several citations listed in the correlation must be used together (i.e., bundled) in order to achieve alignment to the standard.  Other materials may introduce the standard in one chapter, provide practice and reinforcement in another chapter, and assesses mastery of the standard in a third chapter. In this scenario, alignment to the standard is most likely found in the location that assesses mastery and unlikely in the locations where the standard is introduced.   If teachers expect citation listed in the publisher's correlation to be fully aligned to the standard, they may perceive  the material not to be aligned to the standards when they consider the citations individually. (3) Teachers' ability to evaluate alignment: Understanding the concept of alignment is relatively easy; applying the concept is much more difficult. Having interviewed and trained hundreds of educators to review the alignment of materials, we have found that determining whether a material is aligned is a technical skill that few educators have the opportunity or time to hone. Instead of relying on their district-provided instructional material as the primary resource for the course, increasingly, teachers are using resources that they develop or curate from other teachers. The main reason driving this phenomenon is that teachers do not perceive that the district-provided materials are aligned to their state standards. Learning List provides two types of resources to help educators verify the alignment of their district-provided materials. First, our independent, standard-by-standard alignment reports for thousands of widely used PreK-12 instructional materials show precisely (1) which citation(s) in the material is/are aligned to each state standard, and (2) which citations are not aligned. If a citation is not aligned, a reviewer's comment explains which part of the standard the citation fails to address. If multiple citations must be bundled to achieve alignment to a standard, our alignment reports indicate which citations must be "bundled." Second, our Alignment Matters , online professional development course, explains what it means to unpack the content, context and cognitive rigor of a standard and provides guided and independent practice to help teachers determine whether a material is aligned to the standard. These two resources give educators more confidence in the alignment of their district-provided instructional materials and hopefully save them the time of curating other resources to use instead.

If your district or campus will be adopting new materials this year, someone in your campus or district is probably starting to plan the adoption process. Over the last decade, Learning List has assisted hundreds of districts, both formally and informally, with instructional materials adoptions. Based on research regarding selecting and implementing high-quality instructional materials and our own observations of local adoption processes, we offer a four-part blog series on effective strategies for reviewing and selecting instructional resources, both commercially produced and teacher-curated materials. This first blog in this series provides eight steps for planning a successful adoption process. (1) Articulate the need for the adoption . The adoption of core materials is typically, though not always, driven by a change in the state standards. In contrast, there are many reasons that districts adopt supplemental materials. To ensure that the administration, teachers and the community understand the need for the adoption, it is important to clearly articulate the reason for and goal of the adoption before beginning the review process.   (2) Define the non-negotiables for the adoption . District or campus leaders should identify the non-negotiables for the adoption. Non-negotiables are the basic requirements, such as the budget, the minimum alignment percentage, instructional model, required supports for students and resources for teachers, and the format of the material. Recent experience with remote learning may suggest additional non-negotiables. (3) Establish a timeline . Working back from the board meeting where the materials will be adopted or from the deadline for getting materials into the classroom, create a realistic timeline for the entire process, including time for ordering any required technology and providing product-specific professional development for teachers, if appropriate. (4) Document the review process logistics. Be sure to think through the logistics of the entire review and adoption process, including: When, where and how will the selection committee review the materials? Will a rubric be used for the adoption, and if so, how will the rubric be developed? Will the selection committee review the materials simultaneously in-person or virtually and on their own time? If the product samples are online, how will login credentials be provided for all reviewers? Will publishers be permitted to present to the selection committee? What are the voting protocols for the selection committee's recommendations? How will the new material be distributed? Who will be involved in the planning and supporting the implementation? Is there an allocation in the budget for professional development and ongoing support? (5) Identify the makeup of the selection committee and define attendance requirements . State law and/or board policy may dictate the positions that must be represented on the selection committee. At a minimum, the committee should include both experienced and new teachers representing the content area and grade bands covered by the adoption, as well as teachers who provide support services for students, and a technology integration specialist if the material selected may have online components. Additionally, it is important to document attendance requirements and how selection committee members will be replaced if they are unable to meet those requirements.   (6) Distribute a needs assessment. It is critical to gather feedback from teachers, parents and the community about the features they want in the new material. The needs assessment gives all stakeholders, not just the selection committee, a voice in the adoption process. Failure to include this step creates a feeling of disenfranchisement, which may impede the successful implementation. For a core material, the needs assessment should be distributed to all teachers who will have to use the newly adopted material, as well as staff who will be supporting its implementation, such as instructional coaches, instructional technology staff and parents. In some states, districts are required by state law to survey the community during an adoption, as well. For supplemental materials, distributing the needs assessment to teachers who will be using the new material and to staff who will be supporting its implementation would suffice. Aggregate the results of the needs assessment to identify the features that the stakeholders believe the new material must have. These features should then be reflected in the district's rubric for the adoption, which we will discuss in the next blog in this series. (7) Narrow the number of materials to be reviewed by the selection committee . The list of non-negotiables should be used to eliminate materials from consideration and thus narrow the number of materials the selection committee will review. This can be done by district or campus leaders or by the selection committee. Optimally, the selection committee will conduct a rubric review of between three and five materials. (8) Develop a rubric . A decision point in any adoption is whether to use a rubric. The next blog in this series will address benefits of using a rubric and how to develop a rubric and implement it consistently.

This is the second blog in the series about effective strategies for reviewing and selecting instructional materials. Our first blog discussed planning a successful adoption, which included distributing and aggregating the results of a needs assessment. Now it is time to develop a rubric for the adoption. Developing a rubric from scratch can be daunting. More often, educators look for existing rubrics to customize. This blog provides guidance for creating or customizing a rubric to reflect a district's priorities and state standards.   Identifying criteria and sub-criteria  In an instructional materials selection rubric, criteria and sub-criteria/guidance statements should describe observable and measurable features of instructional materials. The following resources will help you identify the features you want to include in your rubric: Research on features of high-quality materials; Best practices for the content area;  The district's instructional goals; The Needs Assessment feedback;  The instructional focus of and topics addressed in the state standards. Keeping the rubric to a manageable length can be one of the biggest challenges when designing a rubric. We have observed, that in order for selection committee members to use a rubric with fidelity, rubrics for selecting core materials should include no more than ten (10) criteria and up to five (5) sub-criteria for each criterion. Thus, the rubric should include the features in instructional materials that your district values most . Drafting criteria and sub-criteria statements Each criterion and sub-criterion should be written as a statement using precise, unambiguous language. Terms like consistently , throughout , and repeatedly may be used to describe features that should be reflected throughout the material. For example: The material is structured consistently and logically. Materials support coherence and connections between and within content at the grade level and across grade levels. Materials provide opportunities for students to engage in productive struggle through sensemaking that involves reading, writing, thinking, and acting as scientists and engineers. It is not imperative to include sub-criteria/guidance statements for each criterion. If used, these statements should clarify or illustrate the criteria. For that reason, sub-criteria statements often include illustrative language, such as includes or does not include . Judgmental language such as poor , well , exceptional, or excellent should not be included in the criteria or sub-criteria statements; rather, judgments should be addressed in the rubric’s rating scale. The format of the criteria and sub-criteria/guidance statements will affect the type and format of the rating scale and vice versa. Developing the rating scale Rubrics should include at least one rating scale. The rating scale allows users to express their level of agreement with each criterion and sub-criterion statement. There are many types of rating scales , including:   Graphic Numerical Descriptive As mentioned above, the type of rating scale selected impacts how criteria and sub-criteria statements are formatted. The type and format of the rating scale also affect how the response data can be aggregated and disaggregated. Using a rating scale that assigns a numeric value for each response makes it easy to tally a score for each material from the aggregate response data. The response choices in the rating scale should be easy to understand and distinguish. The scale should include a sufficient number of response choices to allow selection committee members to communicate their level of agreement with the criteria and/or sub-criteria statements clearly. We have observed that having between three and five response choices in a rating scale works best; too many choices (e.g., 1-10) makes it difficult to discern a meaningful difference in the materials’ aggregate scores.   Testing the rubric Once a draft of the rubric is complete, it is prudent to run it by a few of the content-area teachers to make sure that it is a manageable length and easy to understand. Training for effective implementation Selection committee members must receive training to ensure that they interpret and apply the criteria and sub-criteria/guidance statements consistently. Optimally, district curriculum staff would create an evidence guide that provides text-based examples of the different performance levels for each criterion and key sub-criteria statements. If that is not possible, the selection committee should discuss performance-level examples before beginning the reviews. For example, one of the criteria in any instructional materials rubric should be standards alignment. Selection committee members should receive training on or at least discuss what alignment means and how to evaluate a material's alignment to state standards. If available, links to reliable third-party reviews of the materials being considered will facilitate committee members’ completion of the rubric for each material.   Conducting the reviews While it may be necessary to conduct the reviews virtually, we have observed that having committee members in the same room while they are independently reviewing materials has important benefits. The spontaneous conversations that occur often prompt committee members to explore the materials more deeply and ultimately facilitate consensus building around which materials meet the district’s needs best. When that happens, the selection committee members tend to become strong advocates for the materials selected.  Convene the selection committee to discuss rubric results Once completed rubrics have been submitted, the person managing the selection process should analyze the committee’s response data to determine for each grade level covered by the adoption, which material scored (1) highest overall, and (2) highest on each criterion. That data analysis should be documented in an easy-to-read format and provided to the selection committee members.  The selection committee should reconvene to discuss the rubric results with the goal of reaching a consensus about the materials to recommend for adoption. However, the district’s voting procedures should address how a material will be selected if consensus is not reached. Document rationale for making recommendations The rubric data and the selection committee’s rationale for each recommended material should be documented clearly. If the materials will be adopted by the school board, that documentation should be shared with the board.  The documentation should be maintained in the district for several years in case the district’s use of the selected material is ever challenged by parents or the community. Given the work involved in developing a rubric, a rubric-review process is generally used to select core materials. The next blog in this series will discuss a process for reviewing and selecting supplemental materials. If you need additional guidance developing or customizing rubrics, check out our 2-hour online rubric development course . This course is designed for anyone who is managing an adoption process - large or small. Additionally, our online Selection Toolkit provides standards-aligned, customizable rubrics for math English Language Arts and science.

In the first two blogs in this series, we offered guidance for planning an instructional materials adoption and customizing a rubric to reflect your district's priorities . Generally, districts would use that information when selecting core materials. Supplemental materials are most commonly selected at the campus level, and campus leaders typically rely on word of mouth (Wang et. al., 2019) when it comes to selecting new instructional materials. While core materials are more expensive than supplemental resources, most districts spend more money on supplemental resources overall, given the number of supplemental materials purchased each year.  Moreover, supplemental resources are often used to remediate struggling students. Thus, it is just as important to select standards-aligned, high-quality supplemental materials as core materials. To ensure that campuses purchase high-quality supplemental materials, implementing a structured process for reviewing and selecting supplemental resources would be prudent. Since supplemental materials are not as robust as core materials, a pared-down review process such as the one described below would suffice. (1) Articulate the need for the adoption. While a change in state standards is typically the impetus for selecting new core materials, many other factors compel districts/campuses to purchase new supplemental materials. For both financial and political reasons, district or campus leaders would be wise to document clearly why new supplemental materials are needed. (2) Establish a timeline . When developing a timeline for selecting supplemental materials, it is wise to work backward from the date the material must be in the classroom. Given that many supplemental materials these days are digital, be sure to allocate sufficient time for teacher training on how to use the new material. (3) Identify the selection committee . The makeup of the selection committee should depend on the type of material being adopted and the number of teachers who will use it. To secure buy-in for the material selected, a representative sample of the teachers who will be using the new material, as well as staff who will be supporting its implementation, should be on the selection committee. Including both experienced and inexperienced teachers will help ensure that the material selected will support teachers with a wide range of experience. (4) Document the review process logistics . To avoid delays in the process, document and communicate to the selection committee members where , when , and how they should access the product samples they will be reviewing and the date by which reviews must be completed. (5) Identify the non-negotiables . Just as for the adoption of core materials, district or campus leaders should identify the non-negotiables for the adoption of supplemental resources. Non-negotiables may include the budget, the minimum alignment percentage, the material's format, and the required supports for students. (6) Distribute a needs assessment . Before selecting a new supplemental material, it is important to gather feedback about the features teachers want and/or need. An easy way to do this would be to distribute a needs assessment survey to all teachers who will be using the new material and staff who will be supporting its implementation. The aggregated results of the needs assessment will provide the list of features teachers believe the new supplemental material must have to support their students. (7) Narrow the number of materials to be reviewed . Put together a list of supplemental materials to consider. The Learning List , a new, directory of K-12 instructional materials can save you hours of work. Then, use the list of non-negotiables and the needs assessment results to narrow the number of materials the selection committee will review. Optimally, the committee will review between three and five materials. (8) Develop a rubric/checklist of features for the selection committee to use for their reviews. In our previous blog Customizing an Instructional Materials Rubric To Reflect Your District’s Priorities , we discuss the benefits of using a rubric in an adoption process. For the selection of a supplemental resource, the same benefits could likely be achieved by developing a checklist of features rather than a full-blown rubric. The list of non-negotiables, the needs assessment results, state standards, and best practices for the content area and type of material being adopted may be useful resources when developing the checklist. Using a features checklist to select supplemental materials will ensure consistency in the review process and provide data to support a selection decision. (9) Test the features checklist.  As with a rubric, once the features checklist is complete, it would be prudent to run it by a few of the teachers who will be using the material that will be selected to make sure that the checklist (a) includes the features they believe are necessary, and (b) is a reasonable length. In the case of rubrics and checklists, more is not necessarily better. If the checklist is too long, selection committee members may not use it with fidelity to review each material, which would distort the data and could lead to the selection of the wrong material.  (10) Train the selection committee. It is important to provide training to ensure that all committee members understand the features listed in the checklist and how each is likely to be reflected in a material. For example, if one of the features on the checklist is alignment to standards, selection committee members need to understand what alignment means and how to evaluate a supplemental material for alignment to state standards . (11) Review the materials. While it may be necessary to allow committee members to review the materials on their own time, we have observed that convening reviewers in a room while they review the materials independently facilitates important, spontaneous conversations that lead to deeper reviews of the materials and consensus building around which material(s) meets the campus/district’s needs best. (12) Analyze the data and reconvene the selection committee to make a final selection. Once selection committee members have submitted their completed checklists, the person managing the selection process should analyze the responses to determine which material(s) contain(s) the greatest number of checklist features. The selection committee should then be reconvened to discuss the data with the goal of reaching a consensus about which material to select. The rationale for selecting that material should be documented clearly and communicated to the teachers who will be using the new material. Maintain The documentation should be maintained for several years in case the district’s use of the selected material is ever challenged. Research suggests that supplemental materials are most often selected at the campus level based on referrals from colleagues rather than as a result of a structured vetting process. Given how much districts spend on supplemental resources, the important role these materials play in preparing students for academic success, and the potential for a challenge by parents and/or community groups, adopting a structured process for reviewing and selecting supplemental materials would be prudent. Less time-consuming than the process for reviewing core materials, the process suggested in this blog solicits feedback from the relevant teachers, facilitates consistent reviews, and produces data to support the selection decision(s). If your district needs assistance selecting core or supplemental materials, contact us . Our reviews and comparison tools , online professional development courses , and selection toolkit or selection facilitation service , provide increasing levels of support. Wang, E., Tuma, A., Lawrence, R., Kaufman, J., Woo, A., and Henry, D. (2021) School Leaders' Role in Selecting and Supporting Teachers' Use of Instructional Materials: An Interview Study. RAND Corporation. https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA134-9.html .

The state’s math standards recently changed, and your district purchased new instructional materials for mathematics. Teachers use the materials for a few months, but when students struggle to master the content, the teachers grow skeptical about the material’s quality. Increasingly, they turn to lesson resources they have developed themselves or borrowed from their colleagues. The district’s math materials gather dust, and district leaders are left with curriculum chaos. That scenario, which has played out in districts across the country for decades, was our impetus for founding Learning List a decade ago and remains our call to action.  This week is Learning List’s 10th anniversary, a time for celebration and reflection. We founded Learning List’s subscription-based instructional materials review service as an economical way to help educators access independent, evidence-based curriculum reviews to inform districts/campuses' purchasing decisions.  Over the years, other entities have begun reviewing instructional materials, including more state education agencies. So, what sets Learning List apart?  We expand districts’ choices and inform local control.  Like Consumer Reports®, Learning List is a private company, independent from publishers and free from political influence. States and other review entities rate and rank materials with the goal of identifying "the best" materials for districts to use. We do not. We calculate an alignment percentage, but we do not rank or rate the materials we review. We provide our subscribing districts with access to easy-to-read, evidence-based reviews of thousands of widely-used PreK-12 instructional materials and comparison tools that empower them to select the materials that meet their students’ needs best.  We provide a curriculum review service . While states' and other entities' reviews are driven by publishers' submissions, requests from subscribing districts drive our review process. Consequently, our library is filled with reviews of the materials districts are most interested in. We also assist districts in finding answers to selection-related questions and help facilitate local adoption processes. In short, Learning List provides a review service , not just a website with reviews. Our curriculum reviews are published within a timeframe that meets educators' needs. Most review entities take months to publish their reviews. While each material is reviewed by multiple subject matter experts , our efficient review methodology and strict adherence to deadlines enable us to publish an alignment report , instructional quality review , and technology compatibility review for each material within six weeks of the material's submission. We have reviewed many more and a greater variety of materials than other entities. Other entities review materials aligned to a specific state's standards or national standards. We have reviewed materials aligned to multiple states’ and national standards. We have reviewed more than 3,300 core and supplemental materials published by almost 200 publishers . Our reviews span the four core subjects and several others, including Career & Technical Education, Health Education, Technology Applications, and Advanced Placement courses. No other review entity has the equivalent breadth or depth of experience reviewing materials. Our reviews and tools are useful beyond the selection process. Most other entities produce reviews to help educators select materials. Our reviews and online tools inform instruction, as well as selection decisions. Educators use our standard-by-standard alignment reports and comparison tools to develop targeted instruction and/or intervention with the materials they have purchased. As educators know all too well, the price does not necessarily equate with value. Despite the existence of free reviews, we are celebrating our 10 th anniversary because the value districts get from our review service far exceeds the low subscription price. Over the years, we have added other curriculum support services to meet districts’ evolving needs. We look forward to partnering with many more districts to expand their capacity, relieve their workload and provide peace of mind.

When purchasing supplemental materials, how much weight should you give to the alignment percentage? In this blog, we explore the differences between comprehensive and supplemental materials when it comes to assessing alignment. Educators in every district are working hard this year to close students' Covid-19-related learning gaps. Consequently, many campuses and districts are selecting supplemental materials. This blog  discusses important differences between supplemental and comprehensive (also referred to as core) materials to help set realistic expectations of supplemental materials .  As the blog discusses, one of the characteristics that define a high-quality comprehensive material is a high alignment percentage - the percentage of standards to which the material is aligned. Is the same true of supplemental materials? The alignment of a material to the state standards is an indicator of whether the material teaches what the standards require students to learn. While it is just as important to consider the alignment of supplemental materials as it is core materials, the alignment percentage of supplemental materials may not be all-telling. Here's why. A supplemental material should be aligned to and provide sufficient practice for each of the standards you will use it to teach. But you may not be buying the supplemental material to teach all of the standards. For example, is it critical for a science test prep material to be aligned to 100 percent of the grade-level science standards, or is more important for it to be aligned to and provide multiple activities for the standards that are eligible for assessment? Similarly, if you are purchasing a material to provide students with intensive practice on fractions , do you need the material to be aligned to all grade level math standards - or is it more important for it to be aligned to and provide copious practice on just the standards that address fractions? Because comprehensive materials are used as the primary material for the course, they should be aligned to the highest percentage of state standards possible. Supplemental materials, however, are used for more specific purposes. Thus, the percentage of standards to which a supplemental material is aligned is less important than whether the material is well aligned to the standards it will be used to teach. For more guidance on selecting supplemental materials, see our whitepapers, " Navigating to Successful Student Outcomes with Standards-Aligned Instruction " and " Guidance for Selecting or Curating High-Quality Instructional Resources ."